Turisme Comunitat Valenciana has promoted the preparation of a study that reflects the current situation of health and wellness tourism in the Valencian Community and proposes a series of recommendations, with the main objective of promoting this type of tourism and positioning the Community as a benchmark in health tourism, especially medical tourism and spas.
This publication, prepared by Castro Consulting under the name ‘Study on Health and Well-being Tourism in the Valencian Community’ and which will shortly be published on the Invat tur website and YouTube channel, arises from Turisme’s commitment to business community, entities and associations of the sector.
For the regional secretary of Tourism, Francesc Colomer, “health tourism has great potential and has a long history in the Region”. “We have leading medical centers, as well as good air connectivity, which, together with the development of a complementary quality offer, has allowed us to position ourselves as a leading international destination,” he explained.
The head of Turisme highlighted the strengths of the Valencian Community as a destination for spa tourism and pointed out that “we have the Federation of Thermal Stations, and a product linked to mineral-medicinal waters and history”.
Likewise, he has highlighted the cohesion of this subsector, as well as the Imserso program “as a basis for work and promotion of spa tourism”, which is expected to attract more than 180,000 older people to the Community by 2023.
Main conclusions of the study
The purpose of this study is, on the one hand, to assess the degree of development of health and wellness tourism in the Valencian Community, to improve the competitiveness, positioning, promotion and governance of the health and wellness product. On the other hand, align the tourism strategy of this product with the SDGs and improve the positioning and tourist image of the Valencian Community as a health destination.
For this, this report includes the five phases of the methodological process that has been carried out to know the dynamics of this product in the Community, the first of which revolves around the analysis of the product and trends, the second to social participation, the third to the diagnosis, the fourth phase develops the value proposition and the last and fifth phase details the strategies and lines of action.
Among them, the proposal to advance public-private collaboration in the tourist development of the destination stands out, as well as the need to define a clear objective and generate a brand that places the Valencian Community as a benchmark in health and well-being tourism.
Another of the final conclusions of this study is the need to involve the health area in this strategy and train the sector to create experiences and packages. Likewise, following the diagnosis of the current situation, the need to create a link between companies and public administrations within the Tourism and Health sector and improve dialogue has become visible.
